Difference between revisions of "Proof (truth)"

Latest revision as of 08:54, 29 August 2016

A proof is sufficient evidence or a sufficient argument for the truth of a proposition.

Description

The concept applies in a variety of disciplines, with both the nature of the evidence or justification and the criteria for sufficiency being area-dependent.

In the area of oral and written communication such as conversation, dialog, rhetoric, etc., a proof is a persuasive perlocutionary speech act, which demonstrates the truth of a proposition.

In any area of mathematics defined by its assumptions or axioms, a proof is an argument establishing a theorem of that area via accepted rules of inference starting from those axioms and from other previously established theorems.

The subject of logic, in particular proof theory, formalizes and studies the notion of formal proof.

In some areas of epistemology and theology, the notion of justification plays approximately the role of proof, while in jurisprudence the corresponding term is evidence, with "burden of proof" as a concept common to both philosophy and law.

See also

• Evidence, information which tends to determine or demonstrate the truth of a proposition
• Mathematical proof
• Proof theory
• Proof of concept
• Provability logic
• Proof procedure
• Proof complexity
• Standard of proof

External links

• Proof (truth) @ Wikipedia